‘I have wounded our community’: Alaska storyteller speaks after pleading guilty to attempted child sex abuse

As an acclaimed playwright and professional storyteller, Jack Dalton made it his career to tackle painful issues in Alaska, including sexual abuse, through stories.

But in his own life, he failed, he told an Anchorage courtroom at his sentencing for attempted sexual abuse of a minor on Wednesday morning.

"I've spent my entire career working for the cause of healing our Alaska community from historical traumas," the 45-year-old said. "I feel a horrible sense of shame that despite my best efforts I allowed the darkness to overtake me."

"I became part of the problem I had worked so hard to heal," he said. "I have wounded our community."

Dalton was charged in 2016 with trying to meet up with a 14-year-old boy he knew was underage for sex. Police said he met the boy on Craigslist.

He was originally charged with second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree attempted sexual abuse of a minor. Under the terms of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty Wednesday in Anchorage Superior Court to a single count of attempted sexual abuse of a minor, a Class C felony.

Dalton told Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Corey that he took "full responsibility for his actions" and pleaded guilty in part because he wanted to spare the victim and his family a trial.

At the sentencing, Dalton said the charges undid 20 years of trust he had built in Alaska. He performed for thousands of schoolchildren all over the state, participated in everything from youth wilderness trips to a camp for grieving children and staged critically acclaimed plays like "Assimilation" and Raven's Radio Hour.

At the time he was arrested, he had been cast in "Our Voices Will Be Heard," a partly autobiographical play by Juneau playwright Vera Starbard about sexual abuse set in a 19th-century Tlingit village.

In the wake of Dalton's arrest, Starbard told the Juneau Empire the news made her feel "if I can't write a play about sexual abuse without casting someone who may be a sexual abuser in the play, then I just need to give up, and that was a pretty overwhelming feeling."

Dalton was born in Bethel, with family roots in Hooper Bay. He was adopted and raised by a non-Native family in Anchorage. In past interviews, he has said a personal search for his Yup'ik heritage led him to his work as a storyteller and writer.

The sentencing was attended by Dalton's parents, as well as friends and some pillars of the Alaska arts and education worlds.

Some stood to speak on Dalton's behalf.

Sandy Harper, the co-founder of Cyrano's Theatre Company, called Dalton a "beloved, honored and respected member" of the company. Harper said she believed Dalton was working hard in therapy for personal change, and that he could turn the experience into art that would be instructive to others.

"Theater and life is about redemption," she said. "And that is certainly what Jack is doing."

Dalton, sitting at the defense table in a dark blue button-up shirt and an ivory necklace, his signature long hair cropped short, mouthed "thank you" to Harper as she walked away.

Leslie Kimiko Ward, an Alaska artist now living in Oregon, told the court by phone she did not condone the behavior that led to the charges, but was "hopeful that this will be part of a larger story Jack is able to tell."

Dalton thanked his supporters for being willing to withstand "the scrutiny of publicity" to speak on his behalf in court, with media cameras looking on.

"I know to be connected to a crime like this puts their own reputations in jeopardy," he said.

In a 15-minute statement, Dalton tearfully apologized to his teenage victim and the victim's parents, who had discovered sexually explicit text messages and pictures exchanged between Dalton and the teenager.

His victim was already suffering and trying to find his place in the world, Dalton said.

"I wish I could take the pain and restore a sense of normalcy after this experience," he said. "This is a regret I will carry with me for the rest of my life."

Dalton also said that his arrest had forced him to reckon with his own long-concealed experience of childhood sexual abuse.

He told the court that he had been raped by a summer camp counselor at the age of 7, an experience he had long concealed.

"It seems as hard I tried, I was unable to break the cycle," he said.

He said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, and said he hoped he could keep up the intensive therapy he'd been doing in prison.

The sentencing hearing will continue Friday, when Judge Corey is expected to hand down a sentence in the range of two to seven years.

"We are all a story," Dalton said. "I hope this story has a happy ending."